Takikomi Gohan

If your main diet is rice, you may find that sometimes plain rice tastes rather boring.   Here, we have a recipe called takikomi-gohan (literally means, mix cooked rice).  It is when you mix other ingredients with the plain rice.    There are various recipes for takikomi gohan and basically two ways of cooking it.

First, you prepare the mixture separately from cooking the plain rice.   Secondly, you can mix the ingredients with the rice then cook them together in the rice cooker.

My favorite is Go-Moku-Takikomi-Gohan (meaning, five mixture rice) - where you put 5 different ingredients in the mixture.

What you need:

3 cups of plain rice (or even brown rice if you like a healthier type)

540 ml of water (a little more if you use brown rice) - i recommend that you make Japanese soup stock (dashi) with this 540 ml of water, instead of just plain water (it tastes much better with dashi)

2 tbsp of sake* and mirin* each

3 tbsp of soy sauce*

5 mixture ingredients (you can change the variety of mixture with other ingredients such as: cooked corns, sliced fried tofu, ham/bacon, sweet potatoes sliced into little cubes, etc.) :

200 gram of chicken meat (sliced into little cubes)

1/2 carrot (sliced into little cubes)

80 gram of burdock (sliced thin and smallest possible)

4 shiitake (you can choose raw shiitake or dried one - if you use dried shiitake, make sure you dip them in water for a while first before cooking)

konnyaku (rinse konnyaku with salt water to get rid of its unpleasant smell) - you may find konnyaku in a Japanese store, otherwise use an alternative ingredients such as: dried tofu or my favorite in spring time is "bamboo shoots" - use already boiled bamboo shoots.

How to make:

1. Season the chicken meat with 1 tbsp of sake and 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce.   Put aside.

2. Cut all the ingredients into small cubes or thin slices.  Then mix them into a bowl.

3. Prepare rice in the rice cooker as usual.   Then pour the water (or dashi water) into the rice cooker as you would do when you cook rice.   Put the 5 ingredients and mix well in the rice cooker.   Then pour sake*, mirin*, soy sauce* into the mixture.   Stir well.

4. Turn on the rice cooker and start cooking.

5. When the rice is cooked, open the rice cooker and the first thing you need to do is to stir the rice well.   You will find that most of the ingredients will sit on the top of the rice.  Mix them well.

Warnings!

1.  Some rice cooker do have special mode for cooking takikomi-gohan, unfortunately some rice cookers do not.   But don't worry.   I have an alternative recipe.  You can actually cook the 5 ingredients separate from the rice.   Cook the rice as usual in the rice cooker - with plain water or dashi water adjusted accordingly to how much you normally use to cook rice.

How to cook the 5 ingredients:

1. Prepare 1 cup (150-160ml of dashi) in the pan.

2. Pour the sake*, mirin* and soy sauce* mixture and the 5 ingredients into the pan.

3. Cook with a low fire until all the water runs out.  While cooking stir the mixture time to time to avoid burning and uneven cooking.

4. When the plain rice is ready, pour the cooked mixture into the rice and .... you have the same "takikomi gohan" at your table!

Enjoy also a variation of takikomi gohan in onigiri!  Good luck!

Colorful Onigiri

Chikuwa Onigiri

Ingredients:

Freshly cooked rice 200 gram

Chikuwa (cooked fish cake) 1 

Small size spring onions - accordingly

Boiled eggs (use only Yellow part) - accordingly

Thin deep fried bean curd 2 tablespoon

How to make:

1. Cut fish cake into small slices as in photo.   Also do the same for the rest of ingredients.

2. Put all decorative ingredients into a bowl and pour the warm rice and mix them all well.

3. Use a round shaped cup or bowl to make onigiri as in photo, alternatively you can try the Japanese traditional style, by hand and make it into shapes that you like.   Remember to wet your hands a little before you began the process.  

My favorite shape is a triangle.  By the way, you can find triangle shaped onigiri at any convenience stores here in Japan.

Rainbow Onigiri

Similar to the above, you need the following to make colorful red and yellow:

1/5 of red and yellow paprika (red & yellow pepper)

2 slices of ham

20 gram of processed cheese

1 tsp of parsely

a little of olive oil

and dried seaweed (nori) for final wrapping

a little of salt and pepper for seasoning

How to make:

1. Cut paprika, cheese, ham into small pieces (see photo)

2. Mix all ingredients into a bowl (together with the warm rice - use 150 gram for this recipe)

3. Season well with salt and pepper according to your taste

4. Shape them to your favorites ;D

Enjoy colorful healthy onigiri for lunch!  My girl loves colorful onigiri in her lunch box, i hope your kids love them too!

Sliced Pork With Ginger Sauce

Spring is lovely with mild weather, however there are still cold and windy days at times.   My favorite recipe is anything with ginger :D  ginger makes your body warm and it feels good when the body is warm....  hm, not too warm, i guess ;D　　　See photo (right)

The Japanese call it "Buta-niku no shouga yaki" , a popular lunch time menu at family restaurants, Japanese bento (lunch boxes) or served for home cooked meals.

What you need to make "Buta-niku no shouga yaki" are:

6 slices of "buta-niku" (sliced raw "pork" - type: ones used for making roast pork)

salt and pepper for initial seasoning

1 tbsp salad oil for frying

Sauce:

2 tsp of each: mirin, sake, soy sauce

grated "shouga" (ginger) - according to taste (i usually prepare at least 1 tsp of it)

How to make:

1. Season the meat with a little bit of salt and pepper

2. Prepare the sauce

3. Dip the meat into the sauce for 10-20 minutes (or longer for stronger taste and color)

4. Fry the meat

5. Place the meat into a clean frying pan and pour the left-over sauce on the top and reheat.

6. Serve when it is hot with freshly cooked rice and green vegetables, such as finely sliced lettuce or cabbage and fresh tomato.

The vegetables on the photo is probably only found in Japan, a rare spring wild herb, called "fuki no tou".   Here some tempura restaurant usually serve "fuki no tou" tempura in the spring time. It tastes bitter but has a very rich flavor.... hm, the best is for you to come here and try it yourself ;D

Tips for freshly cut cabbage/lettuce for salad:

Put them into a bowl, then pour 1 tsp of salad oil, a little salt, sugar and 1/2 tsp of rice/apple vinegar.  Mix them well.   Then decorate with canned tangerines or you can also use fresh ones ( but peeled tangerine taste better). 

Niku Jyaga (Braised Meat With Potatoes)

Do you know that the word "jyaga"-imo (Japanese name for potatoes) is derived from the word Jagarata (old name of Jakarta, now capital city of Indonesia).  Japanese named it from Jagarata because that is how potatoes arrived in Japan, it came from Jagarata.   Some Japanese who have travelled South and lived in Jagarata in the past, brought back potatoes and started potatoes cultivation here.

See photo (top left) for Niku Jyaga

What you need to make Niku Jyaga:

200 gram of thinly sliced pork meat

5-6 potatoes

1 whole onions

2 tbsp of sugar

2 tbsp of soy sauce

2 tbsp of sake

1 1/2 cup of dashi (preferably use Japanese type of broth)

1 tbsp of salad oil

It is very easy to make:

1. Peel potatoes and onions (also the meat if they are not yet cut into thin slices).   Cut them into edible slices.   Some people may like finely cut onions, which is also OK.

2. Fry the onions in the pot you will use for cooking.   Use salad oil for frying.

3. Also fry the meat and then put the potatoes into the mixture.

4. Put all the required sauces, then pour dashi.

5. Cook until potatoes becomes tender.    Put a lid, however, it is better to let a little bit of steam out of the lid as you cook.

Spring Healthy Menu - Check Out Your Favorites!

Secret of Japanese Cooking "Dashi"

I have used the term "soup stock" many times in some recipes in this blog.   Some of you probably know that Japanese cooking requires preparation of making soup stock (or commonly called as "dashi").    There are 2 ingredients commonly used for making dashi, "konbu" and "katsuo bushi".    

Other types of Japanese dashi are made of dried sardines or other dried fish (various type).  Photo on the left shows various type of ingredients for dashi.

Konbu is dried seaweed, not those that can be used to make Japanese salad.  Konbu is used mainly to make dashi.　Konbu dashi is made by dipping the konbu in the water for about an hour.  Then use it to make the soup, 2 slices of 5 cm konbu for 4 cups of water.

Katsuo bushi is fine flakes of dried katsuo (bonito).    

The same way with katsuo bushi, you need a boiling water, dip 20-40 gram for a 4 cups of water and use strainer to take the katsuo bushi out after 3-5 minutes.

For a better taste you can use a combination of konbu and katsuo bushi to make your soup stock. It will give you a rich taste and flavor.    Making dashi is all about experiment and taste.    Some like it strong and others may like it mild.

Nowadays there are packed dashi powder available that are easy to use.   However it is important that you check the salt content of this powder because some may be more salty than others.   

I make my own dashi at home and it is not difficult to make once you get used to it.    What i can tell you about making dashi is that you can make it and store  it for about 2 days.    It will not go bad as long as you store them in the fridge.   Professional cook also recommends this method.

I also learnt so far that the best way to make dashi is not to combine too many unrelated

 ingredients.    Such as, when you are making chicken soup stock, you need not use konbu or 

katsuo bushi since you can just use chicken.   Japanese dashi tastes mild in general, therefore stronger flavor of chicken can surpass the taste of konbu/katsuo bushi.

Here are some photos of how the professional make katsuo bushi.  They are not easy to make at home, so i usually buy the ready to use katsuo bushi/bonito flakes.